Forget People Even Weather is Unfriendly !!!!

Well this was the comment Arun made, he is my colleague at work and also my roommate at the PG, to describe Chennai , the city currently where we are living.

We both ( in fact three of us, Jay is the 3rd one ) have faced all kinds of difficulties one can imagine of , when someone relocates from one place to the another. Chennai offered us all kinds of difficulties Food , Accommodation, Language , Transport etc.

I was living in Bangalore ( another south Indian city ) for the last 2 years and I never faced these problems at such a level. Consider that both of these cities are only 350 kilometers apart , but the differences I have observed and felt are huge.

So why this difference , In Bangalore the influx of people from other state started 20 years back when the IT revolution began. During the span of 20 years people have learnt about the cultures of the other people coming to Bangalore from other states , they have learned the language the cuisines, the festivals etc and thus in Bangalore a group of entrepreneurs have come up who cater to these group of people. Also the people from other place found out a business opportunity and started out their business to cater to these people.

Whereas Chennai has started opening up very recently , so the common man on the street is apprehensive, he is uneasy to see so many people from other states, perhaps at this point of time he is not able to see the business potential that can be generated in the state by this influx. So he is reluctant to help he wants the other people to talk to him in his language and not in English or Hindi and perhaps that's why people from other states face all kinds of problems here. people from other states have just started coming in and Chennai perhaps is still not ready to take them up with open arms and that's why people find themselves in a different 'country' all together. It will take time to Chennai to come to the level of Bangalore or any other Metropolitan city until then "even weather here is unfriendly"

What a Customer Wants ??

Before i start writing about the topic , i would like to tell you that i have been relocated to Chennai , and that's the reason why i was not regular in my postings . Now i am back and all set in Chennai and the story which i am posting here is a result of my today's experience at an eatery.

In Chennai I am finding a hard time to get good food, (please consider the fact that I am from the northern part of India and my taste preferences are different) therefore i have nearly tried all kinds of food offered nearby , but i didn't like any of them. The one reason is primarily taste and the second reason is perhaps the way these Shop owner operate and treat their customer, particularly those people who do not know the native language.

I am not kind of person who believes in regionalism and things like that but down here in this part of India the rationalistic feelings are very strong,( for me it presents a good marketing opportunity , perhaps i will write about it later ) now coming back to my story , today in the afternoon I was led by one of my office colleague to a small eatery located on the third floor of a nearby building. this was a kind of place one can not find if he is not aware of it, the place was very ordinary and had very basic furniture , 2 tables and 4 chairs and a ceiling fan to counter the heat and humidity of Chennai. Now the food , the food was also south Indian food and nothing was great about it either.

Now the question which might arise in your mind , then why did i bother to write so much and that too with the caption , "what customer wants", now the thing which i did not tell you till now was the service which i got from that small eatery .

The lady did not knew Hindi and could not speak or understand English. She was so caring that she made us feel at home and let me tell you that i really enjoyed that food although it was not of my taste.

She also enquired to us about our taste in the symbolic language and also complained that we did not had 'rasam chwal ' a local preparation .

Now coming to the moral of the story , in today's world there is only one thing which can make a customer stick to a product or service, and that is the kind of 'Customer Service' a company , firm or an organization provides to their customers. A good experience always remains in the minds of the customer and this always helps him /her in choosing brands or services. During the information search stage if he recalls this experience then there is a chance that he will buy the same product or service he had a memorable experience. Therefore the marketer's must ensure that at all the points of contacts the customer has a memorable experience and that can be only brought by a good customer service, in my case I am now a regular customer to her shop.